San Jose International Airport
History
San Jose international airport is the primary airport in San Jose, California. It was named after Norman Yoshio Mineta born in 1931 in San José. He was the former transportation secretary in the George Bush administration and commerce secretary in the cabinet of Bill Clinton. He was also a councilman and mayor of San Jose. In 1939, a wholesale grocer & future mayor of San Jose, Ernie Renzel organized a group to purchase 483 acres of the Stockton Ranch. This ranch belonged to the Crocker family and was purchased to become the site for the San Jose international airport. Led by Renzel, the land was paid for in 1940. A test pilot, James M. Nissen rented about 16 acres of the land to build a flight school. He later sold it and became the first manager of the airport.
About the airport
The San Jose international airport is situated three miles Northwest of Downtown San Jose near the intersections of U.S Route 101, Interstate 880 and State Route 87.
It is the main international gateway of Silicon Valley and San Jose city. Presently, it covers 1050 acres of land at an elevation of 62 feet. The airport has two active runways each measuring 11000 by 150 feet concrete.
Terminals
The airport has two terminals; A and B. Terminal A opened in 1900 and has 17 gates. It serves home and international flights and has two floors; the first floor is for Arrivals, including international arrivals while the second floor is the Boarding Area. Terminal B was opened in 2010 and was designed by Fentress Architects. It has 14 gates and two levels, the second is the main floor and is the Baggage claim area while the first floor is the Boarding area. There was originally a third terminal, terminal C. It was built in 1965, but its north end was demolished for the expansion of terminal B. Terminal C was completely demolished in July 2010 and now serves as a surface parking lot.
Features and services
In each terminal, there is a piano, boarding cart, paging station, pay station, lost and found, smoking area, hotel information, meditation room, children play areas, restroom, nursing room, postal service, car rentals, nursing chairs, currency exchange, banking facilities, ATMs, toilets, water refills station, meet and greet area, security checkpoints, massage chairs, among others.
Transportation
For those arriving, there are various means of transport. There are buses and shuttles available to convey you to and fro. You can opt for a taxi which takes about 13 minutes to get downtown or a car rental available at both terminals. There is a free VTA route, 10 airport flyer buses available to transport passengers to the Santa Clara station for Caltrain, ACE commuter rail services, Metro/ Airport light rail station, and Amtrak. There are many attractions that you can get to from the airport. just a short distance away is the world famous Tech Museum of Innovation located in Silicon Valley. There are six parking lots and inter-terminal and economical parking lot busing is available free of charge.
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